Arsenal Park Improvements Approved, Project Cost Significantly Higher Than Expected

The second phase of renovations at Arsenal Park was approved by the City Council, which will include improvements to the recreation areas, but came in more than $4 million higher than originally budgeted.

On Tuesday night, the City Council unanimously approved borrowing $10.35 million to cover the cost of the project. The project will make significant improvements to the park in the East End, said City Manager George Proakis.

“Arsenal Park Phase B is a very important, key, really signature project that is going to bring benefits to Watertown for many years to come,” Proakis said.

Phase B covers the western side of Arsenal Park. The first phase, located near Arsenal Yards, was completed recently, and includes a lawn with a path around it, a pavilion and a tree covered area. When Phase B is completed, the park will have a new playground, spray pad, a community garden, tennis/pickleball and basketball courts, skate park, and improvements to the parking area and a new entry.

The project will help connect bicycle and pedestrian path networks in the area, said Assistant City Manager Steve Magoon.

“It has a significant connection with the Community Path making a link from the Watertown-Cambridge Greenway, which gets you up to Alewife and the Minuteman Trail system, all off-road,” Magoon said. “Going across Arsenal Street and through Arsenal Park down to the (Charles) River can get you to points west and east into Boston.”

When the park was first put on the Capital Improvement Plan the project had a budget of $6 million, but the bid came in at $9 million. With construction oversight, a construction resident engineer, and contingency the total cost was $10.35 million, Proakis said. To cover the cost of the project, while not impacting the City’s borrowing capacity, two other projects were pushed back: Casey Park until fiscal year 2029, and Victory Field Phase II until fiscal year 2026.

Scott Landgren from CDM Smith, the design consultants, said the climate for construction bidding has changed.

“It is a signature park project and has lots of complicated details and it is an unusual bidding climate that we are in post-COVID. Local and global supplies and manufacturers that don’t produce things the way that they used to,” Landgren said. “It’s a vast park, not the park acres itself, but seven acres of improvement that we are doing to this park — a l0t of space that is being worked on.”

One area that officials considered cutting to reduce costs was the spray pad. The current one is not connected to the sewer system, which does not meet regulations, Magoon said. The Conservation Commission, which oversees Arsenal Park, wanted to keep the feature. A plan was made to connect the spray pad drainage to the sewer on Talcott Avenue. Part of the cost will be covered by a $250,000 contribution from Alexandria Realty, the owner of the Arsenal on the Charles, because their stormwater plan for that complex did not meet the City’s regulations.

Councilor John Gannon wondered what steps were being taken to make sure that the park is safe, considering the history of the industrial use of the area when it was the U.S. Army Arsenal.

Landgren said CDM Smith is aware that the site was an EPA Superfund cleanup site, and will take steps to account for that.

“There is a lot of complicated work anticipated as part of this project that will be doing various excavation, and the thought is basically maintain all the soils onsite that are on site and covered under today’s regulations, and covered with tested new top soil,” Landgren said. “That is a similar program to what we have done on other park sites in town that have had varied pasts and have soils that really shouldn’t be transported around, including most recently small work we did at Filippello Park.”

The project is expected to begin in the spring and run through late fall, as long as weather permits, Landgren said, and the left over items will be completed in the spring of 2025.